Israel launches another offensive in Gaza’s south amid push for cease-fire

An Israeli ground assault in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday forced tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes and shelters, many for a third time or more, even as the United States and some Arab allies pressed Israel and Hamas to restart peace talks.

Between 60,000 and 70,000 people had fled by Thursday evening after the Israeli military ordered people in the city of Khan Younis to leave, according to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. More continued to flee into the night and into Friday.

The Israeli military said its troops were “engaged in combat both above and below-ground” in the Khan Younis area, in an attack involving ground troops, fighter jets, helicopter gunships and paratroopers, and that the air force had struck more than 30 targets. The assault, the military said, was “part of the effort to degrade” Hamas’ capabilities “as they attempt to regroup.”

Under a blazing sun, women carrying babies and blankets, men pushing carts and wheelchairs over sandy roads and young children carrying suitcases and backpacks have walked away from homes and shelters and toward unknown destinations. Some were in tears.

“People are sleeping in the streets. Children and women are on the ground without mattresses,” Yafa Abu Aker, a resident of Khan Younis and an independent journalist, told The New York Times in a text message.

“Death is better,” an older woman said Thursday, in video from the Reuters news agency. “We’re fed up. We’ve already died. We’re dead.”

The 10-month war in Gaza has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gazan Health Ministry, and left much of the enclave in rubble.

The Israeli military has already carried out multiple ground offensives into Khan Younis, leaving large parts of the city — once a lush area where many residents lived off the fruits and vegetables they grew — unrecognizable to its residents. The assault on Friday follows a pattern of the Israeli military returning to areas that it previously overran, some more than once to combat Hamas fighters.

Seeking to renew truce negotiations, President Joe Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar issued a statement late Thursday calling for talks starting next Thursday, and that they would be willing to present a “final bridging proposal” to both sides. There was “no further time to waste,” they said, a sign of the growing impatience over the stalled peace talks.

The political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an explosion in Tehran in late July. Hamas and Iran blamed Israel, which has not commented publicly, and Iran vowed revenge for what it called a violation of its sovereignty. Hours earlier, an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon killed a top leader of Hezbollah, which also promised retaliation. There have been no cease-fire negotiations since.

Over a week later, Israel is still bracing for major retaliatory attacks by Iran and Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. In Iran on Friday, officials sent mixed signals about how eager the country was to respond and risk a more direct conflict with Israel.

Danny Citrinowicz, a retired Israeli intelligence officer and fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said Biden and allied leaders were probably hoping that their statement, in raising the prospect of a cease-fire in Gaza, would temper the anticipated Iranian retaliation.

“They could then turn the page on this event and focus on the Aug. 15 meeting with the hope of putting something on the table that could bring all sides to an agreement,” he said. “That’s the hope — but will it work? There are a lot of variables.”

Israeli and Hamas officials have repeatedly accused each other of trying to torpedo the talks by introducing new demands. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel insists that Hamas must be destroyed, while his Israeli critics have accused him of prolonging the war needlessly. His Hamas counterpart, Yahya Sinwar, is seen as a hard-liner in the talks, partly because he knows that he is likely to be killed whether or not the war ends, analysts say.

Netanyahu said he would send negotiators to talks next Thursday, while Hamas has yet to respond to the U.S.-Egypt-Qatar offer.

Much of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million has been on the run throughout the war, chased from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city by Israel’s ever-changing military offensives. With the borders closed, most Gaza residents can’t leave the enclave.

“This is the 14th time we are displaced since the beginning of the war,” Rami Zaki Al-Qara, 42, and a father of four, told the Times in a voice message.

Al-Qara said that packing up his extended family of 40 people over and over to find safety was exhausting and draining him of hope.

“During each displacement, we wish for death at every moment because there is no life in constantly having to take the tent and move it from place to place,” he said.

Al-Qara and his family have had to leave behind more belongings with each displacement. Finding transportation has become more difficult as the war drags on, so they often leave with only the things they can carry. Sometimes they’ve had to flee under Israeli bombardment, forcing them to abandon items like clothing and pots and pans.

Al-Qara says he knows that this displacement most likely won’t be the last.

“Based on what we have witnessed, the Israeli are liars,” he said, noting that even the places designated as safer by Israel often come under attack.

The United Nations and other rights organizations have criticized Israel for attacking areas that its own military has designated as humanitarian zones for displaced people. Israel argues that Hamas hides among civilians, using them as shields.

Al-Qara sees only the thousands of people without homes who are forced to wander from one destroyed area to another.

“They cause hundreds of thousands of people to be displaced,” he said of Israel. “And, still, now we see the rocket as it falls and wish it would fall on us.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.